A few weeks ago, Ecko bought the ball at an auction for around $750,000. Instead of putting the ball in his private collection or donating it to Cooperstown, Ecko has decided to let the people decide what to do with it.

On the microsite, users have the option to vote on one of three scenario's:

1. Send the ball to Cooperstown

2. Permanently brand the ball with an Astrix and give to Cooperstown

3. Send the ball on a rocket into space (the Banish it option)In an interview, Ecko says that he wants people to share their opinions and have a say in what happens to the ball. The cheating debate has been going on for a number of years now and instead of leaving it to the baseball folks to decide, he's letting fans choose.

You might not agree with this contest, but I doubt that many $750,000 campaigns have generated this much buzz in a long time.

If you work in marketing or advertising, you've certainly heard of something going "viral." According to Wikipedia, "An object, even a non-material object, is considered to be viral when it has the ability to spread copies of itself."

We've all heard of the latest viral phenomenon. Whether it's Dove Evolution or Still Free, many people are searching for that next piece of content that captivates the Web 2.0 audience - even if it's only for a minute or two.

But how do we know what the next "viral" video / story is before it hits the masses? Rather than wait for something to gain steam, a new site - Viral Video Chart - measures the hottest viral videos on a day to day basis. As videos get tagged and more talked about on the web, they are assigned higher values and move up the chart.

The site is categorize in a number of different ways - from top viral ads to Celebs, Games to Movies. Featured in the latest edition of the Wired blog, Viral Video Chart is a simple tool to help you find what people are interested in - right now.

Friday

A friend sent over a link to this hilarious site today that is well worth checking out. GoPotato has a mission to provide some of the most entertaining broadband and mobile content on the web. Although they are just starting out, they have a few shows that are certainly work checking out.

As the web continues to grow as the main destination for content, it will be interesting to see sites like GoPotato pop up. Almost like a TV channel that shows a very specific type of content - the only difference being that if you don't like what you see, you'll probably never go back.

Tuesday

For all of the boring shaving campaigns out there, it's nice to see something different and interesting. Instead of putting a ripped guy in a bathroom who gets his recently shaved face rubbed by his hot girlfriend, British company Wilkinson decided to create a funny microsite that shows a baby training to regain his mother attention.

Wilkinson did a great job taking the category insight further - yes, great razors will make your skin feel soft. Guys (but more importantly, girls) love soft skin. But who owns soft skin? Babies. Everyone knows how soft a baby feels. Why not leverage that with a razor but take a funny slant on it?

Currently, this video has over 180,000 hits on YouTube and is allegedly being talked about all of London. The microsite is well worth checking out (although it's in French) and it's nice to see a fun campaign that pokes fun at all the razors out there.

Find more videos like this on AdGabberFound this neat spot on AdGabber, which was also featured on AdRants today. It reminded me of the Coca-cola Happiness spot because of the animation, however the narrator made it feel a bit different - almost a warm feeling for something that is traditionally cold and boring; the stock market.

That being said, this is an interesting approach for a dry category. People who don't use the stock market aren't interested, but they might like a neat ad that helps to educate them on how the market functions. It might not drive them to invest tomorrow, yet if they ever considered it, the NYSE would probably be the first place they'd look.

This ad sucks. I watched it this morning, shook my head, threw up in my mouth, laughed and then considered blogging about it. Thankfully I got really busy then I read what Adrants had to say about it. A perfect post from Adrants:

Mazda Still Makes Cars? Well, It Sure as Hell Can't Make AdsImagine the music you'd hear at a gay strip club. Is your pelvis gyrating yet? Good. Add graphics from Japanese ninja porn. Toss in a green car for good measure.You know what you get?

This ad for Mazda - which, to be frank, has given us (arguably) worse ads in the past. We can't think of a slogan that beats "Fitness comes as standard," though. If you can, congratulations.

American Express walked away with the Emmy for best commercial on the 15th. I disagree but I understand why the voters would support one of their own (Ellen). I truly believe that the only reason this spot won is because it features a well liked TV actress.

It definitely was not the best commercial of the year. I am not saying it is bad; just not the best.

Regardless of my point-of-view congratulations to O&M, American Express and Bryan Buckley.

Starting this week, we're going to feature our Blog of The Week. We read quite a few blogs and are always looking for new ones. If you read any that you think we'd be interested in, please forward them on and we will feature them next week.

The first blog we'd like to feature is called Valleywag. Valleywag is one of the most popular blogs on the net. It focuses is on all the latest gossip in Silicon Valley - from who Facebook's hiring to how the Google guys are spending there money. The blog is edited by Nick Denton (who also founded Gawker media). Denton has a number blogs (that are highly visited) and his estimated worth from his blogs is approximately $280 million.

Valleywag is a great read not only because of the number of posts per day (around 25-30) but because the gossip gives regular readers an inside scoop into what goes on behind the major (and minor) technology companies. It frequently showcases new sites and discusses what Venture Capitalists are putting their money into.